Last June, Suzanne Collins, author of the Hunger Games series, announced that she was writing an untitled prequel to her best-selling series. At that time, the only information released to the public was that there was an “untitled Panem novel” in the works (the name of the society in which the series takes place), and that the release date was sometime in May 2020. On Friday, the novel’s official title, “A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” was announced, along with an official release date of May 19th, 2020.
The novel’s cover art was also released, featuring the series’ famous mockingjay symbol along with a snake. The story takes place 64 years before the first novel does, and is set to detail the events of the 10th Hunger Games and the aftermath of a war that destroyed society.
It is no surprise that fans are overjoyed at the thought of reading another Collins novel. According to CNN, the first book in the series was on the New York Times bestseller list for over 260 weeks and the entire series sold over 100 million copies worldwide.
Lionsgate is said to be working on a film to accompany the novel. This also comes as no surprise, as Collins’ first three books were made into four movies, and each film grossed over $280 million dollars, with the total franchise making over $1.4 billion dollars.
Given that the novel’s biggest fans are now mostly in college, it will be interesting to see what the book’s target audience will be. One fan noted that she was, “curious to see if [the prequel] will regain popularity among current middle and high school students, or if it will just be focused on by the original fans of the series.” When asked about her hopes for the prequel, she went on to say, “I’m really excited to go back to the universe that Collins created, and relive the experience of reading the books that were such a huge part of my childhood. I’d love to learn more about what happened to Katniss’s dad, and also what happened in the earlier games.”
It can be expected that many fans will be lined up to purchase the new novel as soon as they can, ready to read the prequel to the highly acclaimed novel.
